Political party subsidies should be cut right away: Fraser Institute

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Now that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives have won a majority of seats in the House of Commons, the Fraser Institute is pushing them to make good on their promise to eliminate the $27 million subsidy federal political parties receive from taxpayers.

In Vancouver, the Institute's Mark Milke says the feds can't afford to have political parties collecting $2 every three months for each vote their candidates received in the previous election.

"We're still running a $40 billion deficit in this country," said Milke.

"They need every shekel they can get."

During the campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed public financing of political parties as an "enormous cheque that keeps piling into political parties every month whether they raise money or not."

He'd also set winning a majority government on May 2 as the key condition for the shutting off the public subsidy tap.

With that condition met, Milke says the government has no excuse not to act.

"They shouldn't take a couple of years to get rid of the subsidy," said Milke. "They should cut it overnight."

A spokesman for Minister of State for Democratic Reform Steven Fletcher couldn't provide any insight on when the Tories would keep their promise.

"We're committed to do so and this must be approved by Parliament," said Stephen B. Snell. "At this time no date has been set for when Parliament will return."

All opposition parties have opposed killing the subsidy since Harper first tried to do so in 2008 while leading a minority government.

Now that the opposition parties are the minority in Parliament, there is little they can do to stop the government from eliminating the subsidy.